By Amy Olivieri, Constant Contact Regional Development Director, Houston Metro
When it comes to marketing these days, you’ve probably heard about how important it is to create engaging content. Whether it’s written content for email campaigns, a blog, or a website, it all needs to engage your reader.
The good news is that anyone can easily create great, engaging content—even if writing is not your passion.
The reality is, great content is all about answering the questions of your audience. As a subject matter expert in your field, you’re probably already answering these types of questions every day. It’s only when you’re asked to write out the answers that things get tricky because the focus shifts to writing rather than just answering the question.
Here’s how to make easy for yourself: create a simple structure that allows you to just answer questions. Then write out your answers or record yourself answering the questions and transcribe them. Once you have your transcription you’ll need to clean it up a bit but the “writing” part essentially takes care of itself.
If you plan ahead by outlining your content with the following structure you’ll have all the components necessary for an engaging piece of content. Here is a sample structure for you to follow:
- Headline: This can be the question itself, or the question reframed as a how-to. The headline is designed to get attention and let the reader know the benefit of reading the content.
Intro: This is the set-up or context for the content. What’s the problem? What’s the solution?
The 5 W’s: Outline the sub-questions you need to answer about the solution. Usually the who, what, where, when, and why of your topic.
Example/Objection: Can you offer an example that demonstrates your point? Or can you anticipate how the reader may object to what you’re saying?
Summary: Give a brief summary of the information you’ve just shared.
Next Step: How can the reader put this information to use?
This process may feel weird at first, but once you’ve done it a few times you’ll get the hang of it and be able to “write” more engaging content—easier and faster.
